When Athletes Get "the Yips"

One of the saddest and strangest phenomena in professional sports is when an athlete starts experiencing the yips. The ability of our best athletes to perform under high levels of stress is a major determinant in attaining the highest level of sport and competition.

One famous example of the yips involved Steve Sax who went from being named National League Player of the Year in the 1982 season to not being able to throw the ball to first base on routine plays during the next season. Fortunately, he overcame this affliction, but not all pro athletes are so fortunate. For instance, after Nick Anderson bricked four free-throw attempts in the 1995 NBA finals vs. the Orlando Magic, his career never rebounded. Subsequently, his free-throw percentage plummeted, despite playing in the NBA through the 2002–2003 season.

Source: Ronnarong/123RF

The yips refer to psycho-neuromuscular impediment interfering with the execution of fine motor skills during sport. The following 10 points shed further light on the condition:

1. The term “yips” was originally a golf term. It can manifest not only as problems with a player's short game in the form of missed—typically automatic—puts but also as affecting the whole swing.
2. Ernie Els experienced the yips on the first day of competition at the 2016 Masters tournament. He took six puts on a hole for a score of 9, with the ball initially landing two feet behind the hole. Els later described the yips as “a brain spasm that impairs the short game.”
3. The yips has been compared with “lost movement syndrome,” which affects divers and gymnasts, thus resulting in failure to execute a routine movement.
4. Clarke and colleagues developed a two-dimensional model that updates previous modeling to include athletes who experience physical—and not just emotional—manifestations. Type I involves mostly physical symptoms of focal dystonia, whereas Type 2 involves mostly psychological symptoms like performance anxiety and Type 3 is a mix of the other two types. Task-specific focal dystonia refers to involuntary movements (e.g., jerks, spasms, twitches, tremors) presenting in highly overlearned movement patterns during specific activities like professional sports. Focal dystonia is also exhibited by musicians and writers.
5. Choking is an extreme endpoint with regard to anxiety and performance and may explain the psychological aspects of the yips. Choking is a type of performance interruption due to intense anxiety in high-pressure contexts. Unlike those with the yips, however, chokers are able to render rational decisions and identify the proper path to success, although their physical performance is still hindered by psychological factors. Choking can also occur during test taking or public speaking.
6. Those with the yips experience uncontrollable physical movement exacerbated by stress. Anxiety likely contributes but does not cause the yips, per the experts.
7. The directional interpretation hypothesis may play a role in the yips. Individuals who perceive anxiety as facilitative perform better than those who experience anxiety in a debilitative fashion, with performance faltering in the latter group.
8. Although there is limited research on the topic, the Big Five personality traits have been studied in connection with the yips. Lower levels of agreeableness and neuroticism were correlated with poor performance during social pressure.
9. Research has linked the yips to neither depression nor differences in perfectionism and reinvestment. Reinvestment refers to the conscious attempt to control one’s movement during skill execution.
10. Treatments for the yips are not evidence-based and instead rely on anecdotal accounts. Anecdotal interventions include muscle relaxants, motor imagery, pre-performance routines, sensory tricks (e.g., changing putters or drivers), outward intentional shift with music, the use of botulinum toxin, and ß-blockers or alcohol.